User Profile

Malama Na ‘Apapa is a non-profit corporation founded to support the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) management program to preserve, sustain and restore valuable coral reef ecosystems locally on Kauai.

Malama means to care for or take care of and Apapa means the reef flat and corals so put together it means “To care for the coral reefs.”

Some of the activities and things we do to care for the coral reefs include.

In water reef clean ups where we dive and remove large commercial fishing nets that drift onto the coral reefs and get entangled in the coral, Beach clean ups, reef ecology studies, marine biology classes, Scuba certification courses for volunteers, and hopefully in the future coral and fish propagation and turtle husbandry programs.

Coral reefs are home to more than 25% of all marine life. They are the basis of the ocean food chain that supports the larger fish in which millions of people rely on for food and income. Without healthy coral reefs we would not have beautiful reefs to snorkel and dive at. Our favorite sea creatures such as turtles, sea horses, frog fish, angel fish, lobsters and octopus would disappear. Taking care of the coral reefs has many benefits for everyone.

On Saturday Jan 19th 2013, in collaboration with the Surfrider foundation, Mālama Na `Apapa (MNA) conducted an in-water marine debris removal at Ahukini Landing, while the Surfrider group focused on removing a large net that had washed up on the beach near the Kamalani Playground, MNA responded to a report of a large net floating off of Ahukini Landing near where the Giant Green Sea Turtles swim daily. We located a medium sized “Ghost Net” entangled in the old pilings and removed it. The “Ghost Net” weighed about 300 pounds and if untangled and stretched out would be

In May at a residence in Wanini Beach, Kauai, Hawaii, a momentous collaborative event will be happening. All of the nets that Malama Na ‘Apapa, Surfrider Foundation - Kaua’i Chapter and many, many volunteers, have been removing from Kauai’s beaches and reefs will finally began their journey to Oahu. These nets will be on their way to HPower (Hawaii’s only waste-to-energy power plant) on Oahu to be recycled for electricity rather than filling up the landfills.

KOLOA — Malama Na Apapa hosted our annual Earth day In-water and Shoreline clean up on Saturday, April 21, 2012. This year was at Koloa Landing, a dive site on Kauai and home to many of our underwater friends such as the Dragon eel, Spotted eagle ray, Harlequin shrimp, Yellow tail coris (Soli), turtles, frog fish, the Spanish dancer, and many many more beautiful marine life.